1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to stuffed toy animals, and more particularly pertains to stuffed toy animals provided with an abdominal cavity which removably receives stuffed fabric representations of various internal organs in their anatomically correct locations. Children are highly attracted to stuffed animals because of their soft exterior and their aesthetic visual appearances. Likewise, children are equally attracted to live animals such as pet cats and dogs. Children often associate such living pet animals with inanimate stuffed toy animals. As a result, many times these living pet animals are treated roughly or otherwise mishandled by young children. This mistreatment can result in injury to the animal and may also cause injury to the children if the animal becomes frightened and scratches or bites the child. In order to overcome these problems, the present invention provides an anatomically correct stuffed toy animal which is designed as an educational device to teach children that animals are not just toys, rather, they have many of the same physiological characteristics as humans and should be treated like a human friend.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Various types of anatomically constructed dolls for educational purposes are known in the prior art. A typical example of such a doll is to be found in U.S. Pat. No. 2,288,296, which issued to H. Munro on June 30, 1942. This patent discloses an educational doll for providing surgery instruction which is formed as a hollow rubber shell provided with various internal organs. U.S. Pat. No. 2,678,505, which issued to H. Munson on May 18, 1954, discloses a doll for playing at surgery which has a hollow abdominal cavity which is covered by a pair of flaps. The flaps are provided with a row of apertures along their side edges for stitching these flaps in a closed position. Various internal organs are located in their approximate anatomically correct locations within the cavity by registry of a peg on each of the organs with a hole on an internal wall of the cavity. U.S. Pat. No. 3,715,816, which issued to E. White on Feb. 13, 1973, discloses an amusement book for children including pages having animal representations provided with means for releasably receiving the animal's natural food and with a natural food storage habitat representation. U.S. Pat. No. 4,197,670, which issued to Z. Cox on Apr. 15, 1980, discloses an educational toy stuffed doll having a fabric cover. The doll includes a trunk and attached body appendages. The trunk has a hollow cavity adapted to be closed by a hinged fabric door. A baby doll is removably carried within the cavity. VELCRO fasteners are located at selected positions on the doll for attaching the baby doll to the main doll body. U.S. Pat. No. 4,288,222, which issued to J. Kling on Sept. 8, 1981, discloses a rag doll provided with a hollow body cavity accessible by a zipper closed opening located in the front of the doll. A simulated rib cage is located in the upper portion of the body cavity and simulated stuffed replicas of the major body organs are located within the cavity. The various organs are located in their approximately anatomically correct position within the body cavity and secured in the body cavity and or to each other by means of snap fasteners. The organs are completely removably from the body cavity for instructional purposes.
While the above mentioned devices are suited for their intended usage, none of these devices provide a stuffed toy animal having an abdominal cavity closed by a zippered flap provided with external VELCRO fasteners for displaying stuffed representations of the animal's internal organs. Additionally, none of the aforesaid prior art devices disclose a stuffed animal provided with a reversible flap on which indicia are printed on one side for properly locating stuffed representations of the animal's internal organs in their approximately anatomically correct locations. Inasmuch as the art is relatively crowded with respect to these various types of stuffed dolls and toy animals, it can be appreciated that there is a continuing need for and interest in improvements to such stuffed toy animals, and in this respect, the present invention addresses this need and interest.